Another Odd Perl Community Feature

As I write on Modern Perl Books, I've noticed an interesting trend in the access and referral statistics: very few links come from other Perl weblogs, journals, or related sites.

I know plenty of people talk and write about Perl, but I wonder if some of the trouble this community has with getting search engine and buzz results is due to this lack of interlinking. Compare the apparent web presence and mindshare of certain other language communities with a greater propensity toward chitchat. It seems that Gabor has it right when he asks people to link to his site instead of commenting there.

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I had in mind something more than a collection of links. I meant more of a hyperlinked conversation, where I might write something and other people will write longer responses and link back. I don't see that much in the Perl world, and I wonder why.

What good will that do for external sites? Perl people don’t reply to posts by linking and commenting on their weblogs, they reply by replying on the list. Better archives will only produce better intra-archive links.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't have any desire for that kind of distributed conversation. Probably one reason I hated the concept of "blogs" when it first became a buzzword. I'd much rather discuss it all here, in one place.

Odd, since I'm a decentralist.

Anyway, I can't imagine writing something and linking back... I want the original author to see. And hopefully respond. And I want other people in the author's audience to see, and respond. I would only write elsewhere and link back if I fel

--J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers